By Chris Outcalt
coutcalt@seacoastonline.com
Portsmouth Herald
Thursday, January 18, 2007
PORTSMOUTH — Thomas Clairmont, a doctor at Portsmouth Regional Hospital, envisions a health care system without co-pays, deductibles or “pre-existing conditions.”
The program would be tier-free and provide health care coverage for everyone in the country. The way he sees it, having access to health care is not an option; it’s a right.
“The path we’re on now is not sustainable,” said Clairmont. “The link between health insurance and employment should be severed.”
Clairmont explained his vision of a national health care plan to a group of about 30 people Wednesday afternoon at the Portsmouth Public Library.
According to Clairmont, a member of Physicians for a National Health Program, something needs to be done to stop the rising number of uninsured people in New Hampshire and across the country.
Insurance costs are increasing at five times the rate of inflation, which has left more than 45 million Americans without health care, according to statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau.
In New Hampshire, 135,000 people, including 17,000 children, are without health insurance.
“With the number of uninsured rising each year and the number of businesses covering their employees steadily decreasing,” said Clairmont, “the time has come to move toward a national health plan.” A single health care plan would also eliminate the complications of choosing and understanding various plans, he said. “It’s dizzying. I can’t understand these plans myself; I don’t know how anybody else does.”
Clairmont urged those in attendance to take advantage of New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary status to “grill” presidential candidates on national health care and write to representatives in support of the National Health Insurance Act.
“Anybody that comes to New Hampshire, we want these people under fire,” he said.
The national health insurance bill, HR 676, would create a publicly financed, privately delivered health care program available to all U.S. residents.
“We have a new opportunity with the Democrats in power,” he said. “We couldn’t have had this discussion a year ago.”